Breaking Engineer behind pirated TV streaming app arrested

[iDJ]

Maharashtra Cyber police have arrested a Hyderabad-based IT engineer for allegedly developing and running a mobile application to stream pirated content from various OTT platforms and satellite channels.

Satish Venkateshwarlu, who was arrested from Telangana capital on Monday, has been remanded to seven days of police custody by a court here in Mumbai.

According to police, the 28-year-old has been running the app titled “---- TV” for the last two years. The app has lakhs of viewers, including 5,000 paid subscribers, they added.

Maharashtra Cyber police nabs engineer behind app streaming content stolen from OTT platforms

The arrest was made after Viacom 18 Media Private Limited along with another broadcaster approached Maharashtra Cyber with their complaint, alleging that the “rogue, standalone” application had been relaying and transmitting their content without authorisation.

indianexpress.com

 

[nsas02]

sh#t!!

 

[nsas02]

Maharashtra Cyber police have arrested a Hyderabad-based IT engineer for allegedly developing and running a mobile application to stream pirated content from various OTT platforms and satellite channels.

Satish Venkateshwarlu, who was arrested from Telangana capital on Monday, has been remanded to seven days of police custody by a court here in Mumbai.

According to police, the 28-year-old has been running the app titled “---- TV” for the last two years. The app has lakhs of viewers, including 5,000 paid subscribers, they added.

Maharashtra Cyber police nabs engineer behind app streaming content stolen from OTT platforms

The arrest was made after Viacom 18 Media Private Limited along with another broadcaster approached Maharashtra Cyber with their complaint, alleging that the “rogue, standalone” application had been relaying and transmitting their content without authorisation.

indianexpress.com

Even mentioning of the app name is banned?

 

[greylala91]

Not trying to defend the app but sports not being broadcasted in India found presence on the app through international feeds. Also. It also acted as gateway to Jio and Airtel Live TV feeds (through personal account login - not pirated feeds) in a friendly UI, which the apps should have had in the first place.

I guess the illegal movies and series must have caught attention of OTT platforms.

 

[nsas02]

It also acted as gateway to Jio and Airtel Live TV feeds (through personal account login - not pirated feeds) in a friendly UI, which the apps should have had in the first place.

Makes sense. But then, Jio doesnt want to bring Jio TV app for TVs. Few years back there was one, but they stopped supporting it.

 

[greylala91]

Fire TVs live TV section is the only thing closer to what this provided. And that too is way buggy. Its time for Youtube TV to foray into the indian market. Deals with broadcasters is an easy thing considering how Jio and Airtel has plethora of channels

 

[Ashok Varma]

We are trying to reach this type of app due to TRAI's worst NTO.

 

[iDJ]

If OTTs were honestly priced. These kind of malware and trojan invested platforms wouldn't exist. There are so many OTTs in the market. It's too expensive if you want to enjoy everything in a month. It's time to introduce bundled OTT like Tata Sky is doing with Binge at a discounted price. Telecom operators and ISP(s) should take the initiative. Honest monthly price should be also on cards. If annual charges are ₹999 and ₹1499. Charging ₹299 monthly is unrealistic. It shows how one doesn't have faith in their offering.

 

[Abhinav]

Trouble is inevitable when pirated sources get popular enough to threaten legal platforms. I don't think it is possible to completely block piracy, one big name gets banned, alternatives will appear soon with better precaution.

 

[Vishnu777]

If OTTs were honestly priced. These kind of malware and trojan invested platforms wouldn't exist. There are so many OTTs in the market. It's too expensive if you want to enjoy everything in a month. It's time to introduce bundled OTT like Tata Sky is doing with Binge at a discounted price. Telecom operators and ISP(s) should take the initiative. Honest monthly price should be also on cards. If ₹299 is the monthly price. Charging ₹999 and ₹1499 is unrealistic. It shows how one doesn't have faith in their offering.

By OTTs, are you referring to Netflix bro?

IMO, others like Disney+Hotstar, Amazon etc are fair and provides value as well.

Finally, that monthly price, I can't even understand the calculations behind some players like Zee5, which provides 12 months subscription at Rs 499 and 3 months at Rs 299 (without having 1 month option).If they are charging that much for 3 months then how it comes drastically down in 12 months pack if we compare per month cost of both packs.